GovernmentExecutive.com

When the Senate returns next week, the business community will watch the immigration debate with trepidation, not wanting to scuttle the bill's movement while at the same time calling for fundamental changes.

Tech firms, upset about the provisions in the bill related to visas for skilled foreign workers, known as H-1Bs, are not yet saying whether they would oppose it.

Instead, they are banking on an amendment to be offered by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. that would exempt from the H-1B annual cap foreign workers with advanced degrees from U.S. universities or with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.

The amendment also would add a market escalator to the annual cap on H-1B visas, set at 115,000 in the bill. For foreign workers seeking permanent residency, the amendment would create a parallel track for employer-sponsored green cards that would operate side-by-side with the bill's merit-based point system for green card applicants.

"That's what we're promoting right now. It's building momentum," said Bo Cooper, an immigration attorney at Paul Hastings law firm who advises Compete America, a coalition advocating for access to high-skilled workers. "If this amendment doesn't pass, the bill will not address the talent acquisition crisis that's facing employers," Cooper said.

Asked whether Compete America would oppose the bill if the amendment does not pass, Cooper said, "We don't want to cross that bridge yet."

Another business group that is on the verge of opposing the bill is the HR Coalition for a Legal Workforce, comprised of human resources managers and some tech groups. The HR Coalition is focused solely on Title 3 of the immigration bill, which would establish a mandatory electronic employment verification system for all employers.

"We carefully tried not to attack the effort" in the Senate, said coalition head Mike Aitken, director of government affairs at the Society for Human Resource Management. "But the way Title 3 is currently structured -- we have some real problems with it. We don't think it's going to work. Unless it gets changed, I'm not sure how we can support Title 3."

Coalition members are still trying to strike a positive tone. "We want an effective employment verification system," Aitken said. "We're not trying to get away from our obligations. Just don't saddle us with something that's not going to work."

Other business interests took a hit last week when the Senate voted to halve a proposed guest worker program to 200,000 foreign workers a year.

COMMENTS

• Despite the smoke screen being vented by executives and high-ranking politicians, most Americans know where much of the support for the immigration bill comes from; and it's not about low paid unskilled illegal workers. Employers and wealthy investors that have an insatiable appetite for high-tech workers from abroad that will then return to off-shore sites after they receive their training and acculturation in the USA. These workers then return offshore to their native country, where only one of them can lead a dozen workers. American firms can find PLENTY of qualified Americans to fill the jobs, but many of these companies have, and this is no joke, created rules that make American workers off limits, you must outsource to offshore labor and joint the outsourcing party, your career depends on it. As a manager for a Fortune 500 company, I find that American workers are off limits to me, I cannot hire them, even when they offer to work for less than offshore rates, and despite the fact that many of them are better trained, more productive and do better work, and are frequently asked to train their foreign replacements. The immigration bill will help reduce the cap on high-tech workers that's in place today, and put booster rockets on the offshoring and outsourcing trend. M B Posted June 24, 2007 11:50 PM
• The insatiable appetite for skilled foreign workers in these fields only underlines the fact that the portion of the application fee that is supposed to go towards the education of domestic students has never been sufficient. The cap on H’s received and continues to benefit by a huge level of relief provided by NAFTA admissions. In addition firms are not adjusting the status of these workers to permanent full time LPR status if the jobs are truly not supernumerary. The most vocal advocates of increased H’s have gained wealth beyond imagination so the amount of money allocated to scholarship as a cost of doing business should be readily available and should be sufficient to fix this issue in a relatively short period of time if it available to non foreign students. Wayne E Burke Posted June 20, 2007 7:13 AM
• People who cross borders without any fear of their own lives will not have any respect for others lives, This is a fundamental change to american values which takes the life of individuals as the most valuable thing, Also the illegal immigrants have broken the law, that is wrong and his punishable, I also agree that the 12 million number is just what the goverment came up with if all the illegal immigrants have no documentation how can you count them there might be 25 million !! L M Posted June 10, 2007 11:32 PM